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macOS Catalina 10.15
macOS Mojave 10.14
Table of Contents

Control Home accessories on Mac

You can control HomeKit accessories with the Home app on your Mac.

Open Home for me

Control an accessory

  • In the Home app on your Mac, click an accessory to turn it on or off, or double-click it to see more options. The available controls depend on the type of accessory. For example, with some lightbulbs you can change brightness or colours.

Control an accessory with multiple features

Accessories with multiple features are controlled by one accessory tile. For example, if you have a ceiling fan with a built-in light, you can control the speed of the fan and the brightness of the light from the same tile. Similarly, if you have a sensor that detects humidity, temperature and air quality, all features are controlled from one tile.

The available controls depend on the type of accessory.

  1. In the Home app on your Mac, double-click an accessory tile that has multiple features.

  2. Click Accessories, then click one of the features to control or view it.

Control a thermostat

  • You can control a thermostat by moving the selector on the Ring controller or clicking on a mode, such as Heat, Cool or Auto.

Control a HomePod

In addition to clicking the HomePod tile to play or pause music, you can create a scene to control music on HomePod.

  1. In the Home app on your Mac, click the Add button, then click Add Scene.

  2. Name the scene, click Add Accessories, select the circle next to HomePod, then click Done.

  3. Click Audio (below Media) to choose an option — Pause Audio, Resume Audio or Adjust Volume Only.

  4. Click the back arrow, then click Done.

Add an accessory to a room

You can add an accessory to a room or move it to another room.

  1. In the Home app on your Mac, click the Home button, then double-click an accessory.

  2. Click Room, choose a room from the list (or create a new room), then click the Close button in the top-right corner.

    Tip: Right-click (or Control-click) an accessory tile to quickly access the Show Controls and Settings buttons.

Rename an accessory

  1. In the Home app on your Mac, click the Home button, then double-click an accessory.

  2. Delete the accessory’s name, enter a new one, then click the Close button in the top-right corner.

Edit a room

  • In the Home app on your Mac, choose Edit > Edit Room. You can change the room’s name or wallpaper, or you can remove the room.

    Tip: You can customise your wallpaper by dragging and dropping an image such as a JPG or TIFF file.

Add a room to a zone

You can group rooms to form a zone so that accessories in similar rooms are controlled at once. For example, you could create a zone to control all of the rooms on the ground floor of your house and call it Downstairs.

  1. In the Home app on your Mac, choose Edit > Edit Room.

  2. Click Rooms in the top-left corner of the window, then click on a room.

  3. Click Zone, click a zone from the list or click Create New to create a new one, then click Done.

    Add two or more rooms to create a zone.

    To target this zone, say to Siri: “Turn off the downstairs lights.” Learn more about Siri.

    You can’t rename a zone, but you can delete it by swiping left with two fingers on a trackpad and clicking Delete.

Make an accessory a favourite

By default, the first eight accessories you add to Home are automatically listed as favourites, but you can add more accessories as favourites.

  1. In the Home app on your Mac, choose View, then choose the room to which the accessory is assigned.

  2. Double-click the accessory, then click Include in Favourites.

  3. Click the Close button in the top-right corner.

    The accessory appears as a favourite.

Change a lightbulb’s icon

You can change the icon of a lightbulb; you can’t change the icon of other accessories.

  1. In the Home app on your Mac, click the Home button, then double-click a lightbulb accessory.

  2. Click the lightbulb icon, then choose an alternative. Click Done, then click the Close button in the top-right corner.

Rearrange your favourites

  1. In the Home app on your Mac, click the Home button or Rooms button.

  2. Click and drag an accessory or scene to move it.

See alsoUse Siri to control Home on MacUse scenes to control multiple Home accessories on MacApple Support article: Get notifications for your HomeKit accessories
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